The Comfort of the Spirit
by Hazel Sage
Summary: The Deathly Hallows have made Harry far more aware of his world and the spirits which help their loved ones do what they were meant to... Live.
1. Introduction: Harry

**A/N: This story popped into my head one day because I think that the Deathly Hallows are epic and the scene in the last book with the Resurrection Stone never fails to bring me to tears. I originally wrote everything as one document, but I really want to post and I'm not quite done with all the people I want to do yet, so I split it up. Each chapter will be short, but most are written already. Let me know if you have any ideas for other chapters!**

A wise man once asked Harry if he thought that those loved ones who had died ever truly left him. At that time, Harry had been jubilant and would have replied no without a second thought. Later in life, he would have varying answers to that question, depending on his current circumstances – whether there was some reason to despair, whether someone had just passed on, whether he felt as if he'd had a part in the death.

But Harry's answer was no longer unsure. As the Master of the Deathly Hallows, he was aware of much more than he used to be.

The first thing that Harry became aware of was the fact that even though the Resurrection Stone had been lost inside the Forbidden Forest, its power seemed to remain in him. He found that if he was in a despairing state of mind that no one could bring him out of, a ghost of his past would appear before him to cheer him up. His mother came often, as did his father, but sometimes he'd see Remus, Tonks, Sirius, Fred, Dumbledore, or another loved one. They didn't come too frequently, explaining that they really should remain on the other side, where they belong.

Harry did not question this, knowing that it truly was unnatural to be able to talk to the dead. The specters came less often as the years passed and Harry grew out of his emotional turmoil.

But the specters are not the focus of this story. No, no, no, the focus of this story is their spirits.

Harry learned soon after mastering the Hallows that the world felt different to one who was aware of the other side. At first, he could not pass through areas where many people had been killed because he could feel the close link between the world of death and the world of the living. There was dark energy, especially where people had been killed violently, that made him physically ill. After the last battle at Hogwarts, he'd been struck by the horrors that had occurred there and nearly passed out. He didn't understand at that time, but he gradually became used to the nauseous feelings he'd get as he'd pass through certain areas. It only took him a few more experiences to figure it out.

He also learned the differences between ghosts and the specters who came to visit him. The ghosts had a melancholy, cold feel and he could often feel them coming from another room. He supposed that the feeling came from their reluctance to pass on and their unattainable desire to see their loved ones, who had long since passed. The specters had a happier feel and were neither warm nor cold, just… comfortable. The specters knew that they made the right choice to pass on and they had little of the longing that the ghosts had. Harry could easily tell their auras apart after a couple of weeks.

Finally, Harry learned just how often the dead were in the world of the living. They may not appear as the specters do, but the spirits of the dead often permeated the lives of their loved ones. The spirits did feel warm – warm and soothing. Harry could tell each spirit apart, knowing their feel even if he had not quite met them personally.

The other living beings may not feel the spirits as acutely as Harry does, but he knows they can feel them.


	2. Chapter 1: Minerva McGonagall

Minerva McGonagall is often worried that she will not be able to do enough for Hogwarts. Harry often discusses this with her in the office that she feels unworthy of. The first time that this discussion occurred, Harry had just given a History of Magic lecture and Minerva had called him in to discuss what he had done well and how he could improve.

But Harry had immediately noticed something wrong and asked her about it. Surprisingly, Minerva quickly admitted to feeling overwhelmed and incapable. Harry did everything in his power to convince her that she was quite capable, but she simply remained in despair.

That is, until the spirit of Albus Dumbledore burst into the room and enveloped Minerva in a comforting embrace.

For a split second – only a moment – all of the worries of Minerva's life were gone and Harry noticed that her blissful face looked _years_ younger.

Dumbledore's spirit let go of Minerva, but Harry felt it flowing throughout the room, sticking near her. At this point, Minerva was smiling slightly, and Harry was able to talk her out of her misery. When Harry left the cheery Headmistress behind, he felt the spirit of Dumbledore floating beside him.

"Thank you, sir," he said quietly, smiling. Dumbledore's spirit swirled around Harry once before slowly fading away.

But whenever Minerva McGonagall was in despair, particularly about Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Albus Dumbledore's spirit would be there to lift her up.


	3. Chapter 2: George Weasley

George Weasley also had a frequent spirit visitor. Harry had happened to stop by the shop once on a weekend when it was closed. George was inside, working on a design for a candy similar to the Canary Cream, but the buyer could set a type of bird and length of affliction on each candy. For some reason, George was struggling with the correct ingredients for this.

Harry was not much help, but he tried to be moral support as he cheered George on. Quite suddenly, as George seemed ready to beat his head in against the wall, the spirit of Fred Weasley bounced into the room.

The spirit did not stop bouncing, but simply continued hopping throughout the shop, occasionally approaching its twin. Once, the spirit wrapped completely around George, who sat up so suddenly that he nearly tipped the chair over.

"I've got it!" George exclaimed triumphantly, scrambling to write down his improvements. Fred's spirit resumed its insane bouncing around the room – Harry was surprised that the spirit's magical energy didn't knock anything in the shop down.

And every time that Fred's spirit got near George's head, he would freeze a moment, yell out, "Brilliant!" and write down some plan on a different sheet of parchment.

Whenever George Weasley hit a road block or needed an idea, the spirit of Fred Weasley would be there – especially if he had some pranking ideas that he simply could not let die.


	4. Chapter 3: Dennis Creevey

Dennis Creevey was a boy that Harry felt incredibly sorry for. Dennis had been close to his brother Colin as the only other magical person in his family and Colin had been a victim of Voldemort's cruelty.

In fact, Harry felt incredibly sorry for the entire Creevey family – to lose a young boy to such a horrible fate in a world that they had not thought existed until recently.

Harry also felt extraordinarily guilty when he met with the Creevey family soon after Colin's death. The family had been at Hogwarts, awaiting the funeral, and they'd been down in the Great Hall early for breakfast, having trouble sleeping from grief. Harry also suffered from insomnia often, so he had gone down early as well.

When he spotted the Creeveys, he had to steel himself for a moment before continuing. He still felt that he should have known how to stop the war earlier and prevent the late deaths like Colin's from occurring. He thought that he should have been able to better keep the underage students away.

Mr. and Mrs. Creevey looked up at him with red bloodshot eyes, both attempting smiles of greeting but not quite succeeding. Dennis, who actually knew him decently, was able to manage one as he said, "Come eat breakfast with us, mate."

Harry swallowed nervously and sat next to Dennis, grabbing a small plate of food.

As the Creeveys ate in silence, Harry couldn't take it anymore. "I'm so sorry," the words came out rushed but sincere. The family looked up at him curiously.

"I should have stopped Colin. I should have been able to end the war sooner. I should have saved him. I'm so, so, so unbelievably sorry," Harry choked out, trying to get them to understand.

"It's not your fault, Harry," Dennis said, his voice sad. "You did all you could."

"Colin greatly admired you," Mr. Creevey told him. "From what he's told us of you, I'm sure that what Dennis says is true."

Mrs. Creevey patted his hand clumsily. "Don't go thinking like that, Harry. Colin made his choice. I only wish it could have ended up better for us all."

Harry's throat was tight as he thanked them quietly, trying not to think of poor little Colin who should never have had to fight in this war.

Harry felt a presence permeate the air in the Great Hall and relaxed as he felt Colin's spirit glide around him, easing his guilt slightly.

Then, almost shyly, the spirit of Colin Creevey slid over and around Dennis, Mr. Creevey, and Mrs. Creevey. Harry watched as the three stiffened slightly, not used to the warm feeling of the spirit of a dead loved one. Eventually, they relaxed too.

When Colin's presence faded, Dennis gave Harry a genuine smile and asked if he remembered all of the pictures Colin used to take of him. Mr. and Mrs. Creevey joined in, telling him of how many pictures of Harry that Colin had brought home for the first couple of years at Hogwarts.

Harry laughed, sharing the story of the rogue Bludger and how Colin had tried to take a picture – the story _was_ funny in retrospect. The rest of the breakfast was spent telling stories of times gone by with Colin.

Whenever the Creevey family was grieving a bit too much, Colin Creevey's spirit would be there to bring back the good times.


	5. Chapter 4: Cho Chang

Harry didn't talk much with Cho Chang anymore. After his crush on her in his fifth year, he'd realized that she wasn't the sort of person that he would enjoy hanging out with often. Yes, he considered her a friend – after all, she was part of Dumbledore's Army – but he knew they would never be extraordinarily close.

So he was understandably surprised when Cho approached him one day at work, wondering if they could sit together at lunch so that he could give her some advice.

Confused and curious, Harry accepted. He took his lunch break in one of the many designated eating areas in the Ministry building, one that was near the Auror department. Cho joined him a minute or two after he sat down, looking nervous. A couple of people around gave her curious looks, not recognizing her from this side of the Ministry. Harry ignored them.

"What's the matter, Cho?" Harry asked as she sat carefully opposite him.

She wrung her hands. "I'm dating again."

Harry was confused, wondering where she was going. "That's excellent."

"I don't know if it's the right thing to do," she admitted quietly.

She went on to explain that she was dating a Muggle that she really liked at the moment and she was worried about when she should explain that she was a witch. She didn't want to scare him off by telling him too early, but she didn't want to get in too deep and be devastated if he broke it off with her when he found out.

Harry hadn't had to deal with this situation before, but he simply told her that she should tell him sooner rather than later. If he was worth it and had an open mind, he'd judge her for herself, not because she was a witch.

Cho nodded, but still didn't look relaxed. Harry questioned her further.

She laughed nervously. "I think it's fair to say that our relationship was a bit of a disaster, wasn't it?"

Harry smiled, but felt a bit uncomfortable, wondering why their fiasco of a relationship was being brought up. "Yes, I'd say that's a fair judgment."

"Well, I always thought it fell apart because we weren't compatible. I was jealous that you were spending time with Hermione, but you would never leave your best friends for a relationship. I was a bit of an emotional wreck, and you were too, but in a completely different way. We could get along, but now that I think about it, I don't think we would have ever clicked," she admitted. "But I think that we should have been able to have a go of it. I feel like it shouldn't have been that much of a disaster."

Harry nodded, feeling inclined to agree with that statement.

"Then I thought that maybe it was because of Cedric," she said quietly. "I wasn't being very faithful to him, dating you right after he'd passed on. I really liked him, Harry. I admit to being slightly fascinated by you even while I was dating him, but I _really_ liked him. Maybe even loved him. Was this a punishment for being seen as unfaithful?"

Harry was stunned. He never would have thought that Cho would come up with that. "I don't think Cedric would have sabotaged our relationship," Harry told her carefully. "I think that maybe lingering guilt over you still loving Cedric could have caused some communication errors between us that led to us breaking it off. But Cedric would not have done something from the afterlife to try and prevent us from dating."

"I'm worried that this relationship will turn out the same way…" Cho looked down sadly. "I don't think I'll ever let Cedric go completely, but I can move on and try to be happy. I really like this Muggle, I… I just don't want to feel as if I'm betraying Cedric if I kiss someone else and love someone else. I want to be able to love again and not feel guilty."

Harry's heart went out to his old girlfriend and he opened his mouth to say that Cedric would want her to be happy, but his words were not needed.

Cedric Diggory's innocent spirit floated gently into the building before coming to a stop above Cho's shoulders, as if it was draped around her.

Cho stiffened slightly before relaxing and smiling, seeming to recognize the presence of her late lover. Cedric began to drift again, swirling around her, before coming towards Harry a moment.

Harry had been slipping into his normal thoughts that Cedric's death was his fault and Cho would not be going through this if Harry hadn't told Cedric to take the cup with him. But Cedric's spirit flitted by Harry's head, wiping the guilt from his mind for the moment as Cedric disappeared.

Cho and Harry sat in silence for a moment before Cho said quietly, "I think he's okay with it."

"I _know_ he's okay with it," Harry seconded and Cho smiled brilliantly at him.

"Thank you, Harry," she said, gathering her stuff and hugging him briefly before leaving.

"Thank you, Cedric," Harry countered too quietly for anyone to hear as he got ready to get back to work.

Cho Chang may feel guilty about leaving an old love, but the spirit of Cedric Diggory would always be there to let her know that finding a new love was a wonderful thing.


	6. Chapter 5: Andromeda Tonks

Harry had gotten fairly close to Andromeda Tonks, seeing as she was the grandmother of his godson. She was more sarcastic than he'd expected and she had a bit of an attitude, as all the Black sisters seemed to have. But she was a very kind-hearted person who loved Teddy with all her heart and took Harry into her heart as well when she saw the devotion he had to her grandson.

Between the two of them and the Weasleys, Teddy had a very loving family. But it still broke Harry's heart that the boy didn't have his real parents with him. It bothered Andromeda too. She and Harry had many discussions on when to tell Teddy exactly what happened to his parents or how to react when Teddy started asking certain questions.

During one of the discussions, Harry brought up something that had been troubling him for a while. "I think Teddy thinks that I'm his father. I believe that I heard him trying to say Dad to me the other day." He sighed. "I'm thrilled that I'm able to be close enough to him for him to think of me as his father, but… I don't know. As an orphan, I have to say that the names Mum and Dad are very special. You know that Molly is like a mother to me and Arthur is like a father – they have been since I met them. But I still can't call them Mum and Dad, even though I'm their son-in-law. I just… have to save the names Mum and Dad for my real mum and dad."

Andromeda frowned. "We can just get him to call you Harry. Or just let him grow up calling you Dad and if he thinks the way you do, he can decide whether he wants to continue it or not."

Harry nodded. "That sounds logical."

Andromeda put her head in her hands. "Merlin, we never had these problems with Dora…"

He put a comforting hand on her arm.

"Don't get me wrong Harry, you're doing brilliantly," Andromeda began, "but it's just, Ted…" She broke off again, her expression depressed. "He was such a wonderful father. I don't know if I can raise Teddy without him."

"You'll be a spectacular grandmother," Harry reassured her. "And Ginny, the Weasleys, and I will be here to help if you need."

"I know, I just…" Andromeda looked far older at that moment than she really was. "I keep calling Ted down to change the diaper, or hold the baby while I pop over to the Leaky Cauldron, or entertain him while I do laundry. Even with only one child, we had a routine, and I'm all out of sorts without him. I miss him, Harry," her eyes were pained. "I miss him even more than I ever imagined I would and I'm afraid that Teddy won't turn out right without him or Dora or Remus."

Harry scooted the chair closer and reached out to rub the woman's back comfortingly as she cried quietly into her hands.

Suddenly, a familiar warmth spread throughout the room and Harry smiled softly, recognizing the spirit of Ted Tonks, come to comfort his wife.

Ted's spirit swirled all around Andromeda. Her sobs quieted and she looked around her, looking slightly confused, but Ted's spirit simply kept winding around her.

Andromeda closed her eyes, relaxing against the chair. Harry kept his hand on her back, keeping her from leaning too far back and tipping the chair over.

Finally, Ted's spirit dissipated and Andromeda opened her eyes, a soft smile on her face.

"I can always watch Teddy when you need to pop over to the Leaky or do laundry," Harry said quietly, smiling at his godson's grandmother.

Andromeda smiled. "And I can make him his favorite foods, sing him his favorite songs, and make up some bedtime stories for him like I used to do for Dora. Ted always said I did it brilliantly."

Harry grinned back. "I never would have seen you as the housewife type, Andromeda."

"Oh shut up, Harry," Andromeda slapped him lightly on the arm and stood up, heading to Teddy's room, where she could hear him waking up from his nap.

Harry grinned and left for his house, glad that Andromeda got her confidence back.

Andromeda Tonks may be a bit apprehensive about being a parent again, but the spirit of Ted Tonks would always be there to remind his wife how good she was at it.


	7. Chapter 6: Kingsley Shacklebolt

Harry was glad that Kingsley Shacklebolt was the Minister of Magic. He could not think of anyone better suited for leadership after such a devastating war. Kingsley was a calm voice of reason who would not stray from the principles of the light side for revenge or power. He would do what he felt was best for the magical community and he would try to genuinely make the world a better place.

Harry was very proud to call him a close friend. He was also proud to be one of the few people who could stop by the Minister's office unannounced and frequently did so on his lunch breaks to get away from the Auror department. He loved his job, he really did, but he was very frustrated with some of the wizards he worked with, who thought that brawn could overpower any strategy and refused to think before blasting.

He knew that Kingsley was an Auror prior to his job as Minister and would often go to talk with him to see if he had any hints on how to deal with his colleagues. And if he didn't have any advice, it was nice to have a friendly chat.

But as Harry approached Kingsley's office one day, he was surprised to find his friend looking more solemn-faced and serious than normal.

"What's going on, Kingsley?" Harry asked, concerned.

Kingsley went on to explain that many of his reforms were being rejected by wizards and witches too afraid to change from a familiar lifestyle, even when said lifestyle allowed the Dark Lord to rise. He was as frustrated with the Wizengamot as Harry was with his Auror comrades and Harry tried to console him in vain. Kingsley just couldn't understand why only a few people could see how his reforms were going to help.

As Kingsley became increasingly discouraged, a wave of pure Nymphadora Tonks pulsated throughout the room. Harry was a bit surprised as he felt Tonks's spirit lurching throughout the room, but he remembered that Kingsley and Tonks had been partners as Aurors and were actually pretty close.

Good humor began to circulate throughout the room and Kingsley suddenly let out a laugh.

"I'm reminded of my days as an Auror," he explained to Harry as Tonks's spirit continued to, for lack of a better word, trip around the desk where Kingsley was seated. "It was almost as frustrating as this, but with Tonks as my partner, I could never say it was this boring…"

With that, Harry felt Tonks's presence fade slowly as Kingsley told a story involving himself, Tonks, some Death Eaters, and a women's clothing store.

Harry was in stitches at the end of it and Kingsley was nearly falling off of his chair and could scarcely keep a straight face to tell the story. Harry left the room in a considerably better mood and Kingsley seemed cheered up as well.

Kingsley Shacklebolt may have one of the hardest jobs in the Ministry of Magic, but he always had the spirit of Nymphadora Tonks to make him laugh when it was starting to get to him too much.


	8. Chapter 7: Molly Weasley

Molly Weasley was basically Harry's mother. And as such, she could be very frightening when she was in a parenting mood. Harry quickly learned which expressions meant that he could stick around and his eardrums would remain intact and which expressions meant _run while you still can_!

Ginny was better at it than he was and Ron would be good if he paid attention. George seemed to recognize the expressions the best but ignore them all, finding the wrath of his mother amusing sometimes. That was until she started the earsplitting screeches.

Molly's wrath was best avoided, but sometimes one couldn't help but incite it in the poor matriarch. If the brothers were in a playful mood and wanted to roughhouse a bit, it went unsaid that something would break. This property damage would cause the Weasley wrath to appear, but the boys knew it was better than if an overly playful Weasley let off a burst of accidental magic and hurt someone.

George's pranks were some of the surest ways to incite Molly's wrath. And George had indeed outdone himself with an odd box that Transfigured the person opening it into an animal that the box thought fit them. Molly had opened it and turned into a hen for a good five minutes.

Harry could not help laughing along with the rest of him but regretted it when Molly turned back and began to go red with rage.

She'd just begun on her rant when two presences that Harry wasn't familiar with filled the room. The Weasleys felt it, stopping their cowering a bit.

Harry watched Molly, sure that the two spirits, who he'd vaguely recognized as Fabian and Gideon Prewett, were heading towards her. Sure enough, the two spirits began to bounce around in crazy figure eights around Molly. They reminded Harry of the twins – he thought that the Prewett brothers may very well have been twins. And they did seem to like pranking.

Harry watched as Molly visibly calmed down for a moment. The Prewetts bounced around a bit more before bouncing right out of the room.

Molly sighed. "That was actually pretty funny, George," she admitted, smiling slightly. "I guess that I _am_ a mother hen."

Everyone chuckled lightly, but Harry was the only one who understood what had happened. The other Weasleys didn't seem to understand Molly's attitude change and were watching nervously for a relapse.

"Nice job, dear, but don't test a new product on your mother next time," she gave him a stern look before smiling and marching back into the kitchen.

The rest of the Weasleys looked flabbergasted, but Harry simply smiled in the direction that Molly had gone.

Whenever Molly Weasley goes a bit too far in trying to keep order in her home, the spirits of her brothers Fabian and Gideon Prewett will always be around to make sure that she enjoys a good prank every once in a while.


	9. Chapter 8: Ginny Potter

Harry noticed that his wife's spiritual comfort came from an unusual source. He would have expected Fred to comfort her, or maybe the Grandmum and Granddad Weasley that Harry had never met. Who did comfort Ginny Potter was a surprise.

Harry tried not to let bad days at work affect his home life, but today had gone too far. It was the anniversary of Mad-Eye Moody's death and some new recruit had chosen today of all days to talk about what a nutcase old Mad-Eye had been and how glad he was that Mad-Eye wasn't training anyone in the Auror program anymore. Harry had promptly taken the trainee into the dueling chamber and deliberately used only techniques that Moody had told him about to thoroughly crush his opponent.

However, instead of making him feel better, this made him feel worse as he realized he sounded a bit like a bully – beating people up because he didn't like what they said. He'd gone back and apologized to the trainee, though he gave him a strict lecture on respecting the dead and being careful about what he said in the presence of other people who may not share his opinion. The trainee then began to boast that he'd been going easy on Harry and challenged him to a rematch.

Harry was not pleased, but allowed it and once again thoroughly thrashed the trainee.

His lunch break was his sanctuary, away from the dunderheads of half his office, but halfway through lunch, he was called out on a case which turned out to be a wild goose chase across most of Scotland. He got back to the office late, but he was elected to do the paperwork since the other Aurors on his team claimed that he wrote the best papers out of all of them. They were just being lazy gits.

Harry finished his paperwork quickly but was in a foul mood by the time he got home. Ginny had food waiting, but he simply gave her a quick peck before grunting, "I'm going to bed."

Ginny looked a bit put out, but Harry's mood let him ignore things like that as he hurried up the steps to his bedroom. He shrugged into nightclothes, turned off the lights, and tried to sleep – he was bloody exhausted.

But his mind was still racing, replaying the indignities of the day. He groaned angrily as he basically rewrote his report in his head.

Ginny came in as he was trying to bash his head in with a pillow. She laughed lightly, joining him in bed. "Losing a fight with your pillow?" She smirked.

"With my mind," Harry snapped back, not in the mood for teasing. He threw the pillow over his face, right after noticing Ginny's taken aback look. He felt slightly guilty for that, but he was just going mad.

Still, in a small apology, he reached out and took Ginny's hand with his own, stroking the back of her hand softly. "Bad day at work," he explained roughly.

Ginny didn't reply and Harry figured that he deserved no better. He fell into a troubled sleep. When he woke up, he noticed that it was about three o'clock in the morning.

He also noticed that Ginny wasn't in bed with him. That woke him up. He felt horrible, remembering how rude he'd been to his wife last night. If anything had hurt her and they hadn't made up…

He grabbed his wand and hurried throughout the house, peeking into doors and listening for her.

Finally, he heard mumbling from the kitchen and silently approached it. When he peaked in, he saw Ginny with her head in her hands at the table.

"I don't know what I did wrong," she mumbled to herself; Harry knew that when she was really upset she tended to try to talk her problems out with herself. "He's never carried his frustrations home from work with him before today. I don't know how to make it better. I want to help him."

Harry's heart sank, knowing that she was acting like this because of how he'd treated her last night.

"I've comforted him before, but I don't know how to comfort him if he doesn't give me a chance to see what's wrong." She ran her hands through her red hair. "Dad never came home like this to Mum; she always cheered him up. I thought I'd be better at this wife business. This is his first day coming home like this, but still… I thought I'd handle it better."

Harry had begun to step into the kitchen when a spirit swept through the room. The spirit of Sirius Black sped eagerly towards Harry's wife, spinning as crazily around her as a dog chasing its tail. Harry watched as Ginny slowly raised her head and smiled slightly, shaking her head. "He'll tell me what he needs to…"

Harry was surprised that Sirius was the one who chose to comfort Ginny, but then again, she'd told him that they'd gotten close during that summer at Grimmauld Place.

Sirius's spirit bounded away as Harry entered the room. "I'm sorry, Gin," he said, wrapping his arms around her and kissing her softly on the cheek. "I let work get to me. I won't let it happen again."

Ginny smiled back at Harry. "Just tell me what's going on and I'll help you out."

Harry nodded and kissed his wife sweetly.

Whenever Ginny Potter felt nervous about being a good wife to the love of her life, the spirit of Sirius Black, godfather to said love of her life, would always be ready to help her understand the enigma that is Harry Potter.


End file.
